Mswati defends ‘rights of youth’ to march to Kusile power station

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SUCCESSFUL: A march to the Kusile power station by the ANC youth league was hailed as successful by the leagues chairman. PICTURE: Supplied

The regional firebrand leader of the ANC youth league in the Nkangala region has defended a controversial decision to stage a march to the Kusile power station, saying youths have the right to march and deliver demands “anywhere they see fit”.
Mswati, real name Mduduzi Nkosi and also known as Adolf Hitler, is the rabble-rousing chairman of the league in the region.

A media statement a week ago released by his deputy Tsekiso Machike, who is also the spokesman of the league in the region, was hailed by Mswati’s detractors who called for him to be isolated, saying Mswati was a corrupt leader.

Nkosi, or just Mswati, is accused of having “a fleet of taxis” operating to the Kusile power station in eMalahleni, Mpumalanga and of using the ANCYL he leads in the Nkangala region to enrich himself, an accusation Mswati has since denied to the 013NEWS reporter.

In the statement, dated 11 October 2016 and which was a reply to a planned march of 12 October 2016, Machike distanced the league’s regional executive committee from it, labelling it “bogus” and saying it was organised “to pursue agendas of individuals using genuine grievances of the underdeveloped and financially dislocated youths of the region”.

“We want to be categorically clear that such act of using the organisation to pursue agendas of individuals using genuine grievances of the underdeveloped and financially dislocated youth of the region from mainstream economy is tantamount to ill-discipline and appropriate internal organisational steps shall be taken to enforce discipline,” Machike said.

Mswati is alleged to be behind the march to pressure the power generator to give him tenders and the statement released by Machike, who is also with the Young Communist League, was seen by many as an indirect attack to Mswati, an allegation Machike had since denied, saying “there was no proof Mswati was responsible”.

“As far as we are concerned he is not involved,” Machike told the 013NEWS reporter over the phone on Saturday.

But on the same Saturday, Mswati praised the organisers of the march, saying he thanked them “so much” for organising such a “successful march”.

He said: “The issues which range from skills development of the youths of eMalahleni that they raised were genuine and I must applaud them for that. I wish I was part of it; such a successful and peaceful march”.

He said a decision to march to Kusile power station last week Wednesday was initiated by branches of the youth league in the eMalahleni sub-region and was shocked in person at those who didn’t want those young people to deliver their grievances to the power generator.

“You see my brother,” he said to the reporter, “I’m a regional chair elected by branches and when the branches of the ANCYL in the eMalahleni sub-region started doing everything, deputy president [Desmond Moela] called them and said he wanted to meet with them and the deputy president never called me, he called them [the organisers] first and then after speaking to them he then called me and I asked who is the convener of the march and he gave me their numbers and I phoned him the convener, Michael Nkosi, and he said to me that they were waiting for the deputy president to give them transport to go to Kusile’.

“And I said to him, ‘Okay, it’s fine. Go meet the deputy president and make the arrangements. It’s fine’ and they got the green light and the only thing I did was to monitor so that comrades don’t cause trouble, you see trouble like destroying properties and spoil the genuine delivery of the real issues. That’s the only thing I did,” said Mswati.

SEE ALSO: Nkangala chairman Mduduzi Nkosi slams spokesman Tsekiso Machike over Kusile media statement

Nkosi said the convener of the march told him if he, as regional chairman, didn’t allow the branches to go ahead with the march, it would mean he was benefiting from Kusile.

He said he communicated this decision with regional secretary James Makhwiting and “forces on the ground were allowed to go ahead”.

“I’m shocked at those who said I was behind this march and I asked myself, ‘what’?” Mswati said over the weekend.

“These are youths with issues chief, why are we not allowing them to match? Who are we because ourselves we are from the branches that elected us? Were we elected to be dictators of youths?” he asked.

Mswati said the sub-regional convener explained to him that they were doing that as a response to the issues raised during the door-to-door campaigns concerning the Eskom power generator station and then slammed all those who have been posting “things” about him on Facebook.

“You get a rented and tribalistic person like Nkosinathi Mokoena who is used to insulting me so that maybe I can retaliate and get emotional because that Mokoena many people know is loser of note,” he said.

“Even in his own branch he is nothing, so why must I respond to such?”

Mokoena had vowed he would rid the league in the Nkangala region of the “Dondoni detachment”, a reference to Mswati, who is said to be from the Dundonald area in Gert Sibande region.

“We are awake and ready for the Dondoni detachment,” he wrote on Facebook, a statement Machike said was not the position of the regional league structure in Nkangala.

(edited by ZK)

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